Mass Tort Litigation Blog

No Clear Answers in E. Coli Infections

Article in the New York Times: No Clear Answers in E. Coli Infections, from the Associated Press.  The article provides an interesting overview of the development of the spinach e. coli infections and the investigative work of government agencies to stop it.  Here's an excerpt:

    Like lab technicians on a crime-scene television drama, investigators have tracked a
    strain of bacteria over thousands of miles -- from bagged spinach in Midwestern
    refrigerators to the guts of a wild pig in the hills of California's central coast.

    While they may never pinpoint the exact source of the strain of E. coli blamed for
    killing three people and sickening more than 200, they have come closer than ever
    before. And experts say the investigation has yielded valuable clues for preventing
    future outbreaks.

    ''We've completely overhauled the way we test and package greens,'' said Samantha
    Cabaluna, a spokeswoman for Natural Selection Foods LLC, the company that packaged
    the tainted spinach. ''Regardless of the source or method of contamination, we're better
    prepared to catch it.''

BGS

Source of Deadly E. Coli Is Found

Article in today's New York Times -- Source of Deadly E. Coli Is Found, by Libby Sander:

    Cattle manure collected from a California ranch under investigation by federal
    and state authorities contains the same strain of E. coli that killed three people
    and sickened nearly 200 in a recent outbreak linked to tainted spinach, federal
    and state food safety officials said Thursday.

    “We know where the E. coli comes from,” said Dr. Kevin Reilly of the California
    Department of Health Services.

    But while the discovery of the match between E. coli in the manure and in the tainted
    spinach is an unprecedented development in the scientific investigation of food-borne
    illnesses, Dr. Reilly said, it does not solve the mystery of how the spinach was
    contaminated in the first place.

BGS

Toddler's Death Linked to E. Coli Outbreak

Article in today's Washington Post -- Toddler's Death Linked to E. Coli Outbreak, by Rebecca Boone of the Associated Press:

    A 2-year-old boy who died from kidney failure last month had been infected with the
    same strain of E. coli bacteria that prompted a nationwide consumer warning on fresh
    spinach, health officials said Thursday.

    Kyle Allgood's was the second confirmed death in the outbreak, which also killed an
    elderly Wisconsin woman and sickened at least 190 other people.

BGS

Farmers Pledge Steps to Avoid Contamination of Produce

Article from today's New York Times -- Farmers Pledge Steps to Avoid Contamination of Produce, by Jesse McKinley:

    Amid growing governmental pressure and public concern about an E. coli outbreak
    caused by contaminated spinach, California farmers promised new procedures for
    growing, handling and shipping their produce on Thursday, in hopes of lifting a
    week-old government warning about the crop.

    The guidelines were announced just hours after federal and state health authorities
    met with hundreds of concerned and occasionally angry farmers crammed into a Farm
    Bureau office here to offer their help in ending an agricultural crisis that is estimated
    by trade officials to have already cost the spinach industry $50 million.

Pattern of E. Coli Outbreaks Is Seen

Article in today's New York Times -- Pattern of E. Coli Outbreaks Is Seen, by the Associated Press:

    Federal health officials said Monday that before the current E. coli outbreak there
    had been 19 food-poisoning outbreaks since 1995 linked to lettuce and spinach. At
    least eight of those were traced to produce grown in the Salinas Valley in California.
    The outbreaks involved more than 400 cases of sickness and two deaths.

    The outbreaks led the Food and Drug Administration to write to California farmers
    last November, urging them to improve the safety of produce.